Lufthansa South Africa

These Germans! Expect punctuality, precision and quality. That striking German airline called Lufthansa operates flights from Johannesburg to Frankfurt and Cape Town to Munich in large Airbus aircraft - so you wont be short of company! And expect German-style luxury if you go for the business or first class options. The German-Style of management has paid off, the airline was named among the top 10 airlines in the world for 2014.

To book a cheap flight with Lufthansa, use the price comparison tool on the left to search and book. By booking with us you qualify to earn SouthAfrica.TO travel vouchers simply email a write-up of your flight with Lufthansa to cheapflights@southafrica.to (our readers are our writers) - tip: include photos for bigger vouchers.

Lufthansa News

23 June 2017 : Lufthansa has had to cancel over 50 flights to and from Frankfurt today as a big thunderstorm approaches. Although the airline hasn't confirmed whether flights to and from Cape Town and Johannesburg has been affected, the airline has warned of large-scale delays accross all its routes.

29 July 2016 : Lufthansa has announced that they will be offering direct flights from Cape Town to Frankfurt year-round. So from the 2nd of December 2016 there will be three weekly flights, every week. There will also be additional seasonal flights.

30 May 2016 : Lufthansa is introducing flights from Frankfurt to Cape Town in December this year, with plans to make this a permanent route. This will be in addition to their seasonal flights from Munich to Cape Town.

11 March 2016 : Lufthansa has taken delivery of their first ten Airbus A350-900 aircraft which they will gradually phase in on their Johannesburg and seasonal Cape Town flights. To start off, they are first going to use the aircraft on shorter routes of 6 to 8 hours long, said Lufthansa gm for South Africa Andre Schulz. They will continue to operate their Cape Town route with the Boeing 747-800 for the time being. Lufthansa has ordered a total of 25 of these aircraft, which will accommodate 293 passengers with 48 seats in business class, 21 in premium economy and 224 in economy.

9 November 2015 : Lufthansa staff are once again on strike! Their week long strike began on the 6th and ends on the 13th of November 2015. Lufthansa stated that the strike will only affect Lufthansa German services and none of their subsidiaries. Passengers are encouraged to keep up to date with the status of their flight via Lufthansa's website.

21 October 2015 : Lufthansa will up flight frequency between Cape Town and Munich from 5 weekly flights to a daily service during peak season. This will be effective from the 25th of October 2015 until the 27th of March 2016. Lufthansa will operate a A340-600 on this route. Munich Airport's Terminal 2, which the airline will use for Cape Town-Munich flights, has also recently been awarded a 5-Star Rating from Skytrax, making them the first non-Asian airport to achieve such high praise. Capetonians are certainly in for a treat!

08 September 2015 : Lufthansa pilots belonging to the Vereinigung Cockpit union will be on strike tomorrow, the 9th of September 2015. Lufthansa has announced that the strike will lead to the cancellation of several long and short-haul flights. All passengers with cancelled flights can rebook on alternative flights or cancel without costs.

03 August 2015 : Lufthansa is launching restaurant style service in Business class. From August flight attendants will take greater care of each passenger's needs, making sure to take each order before delivering food as they would in a restaurant. Gone are the food trolleys and trays. Flight attendants will serve food straight from the galley on ceramic plates.

30 March 2015: Following rumours that last week's GermanWings crash was deliberately caused by the co-pilot after the pilot was locked out of the cockpit, Lufthansa has adopted new cockpit rules. Whenever a pilot or co-pilot leaves the cockpit another staff member has to take his or her place so that no one is ever alone in the cockpit. This is standard practise in the US and the place is usually taken by an air hostess.

12 May 2015 : Lufthansa are launching flights between Frankfurt and Nairobi from the 27th of October 2015. Initially they will operate 4 weekly flights, increasing to five from the 11th of December 2015 until the end of January 2016.

30 April 2015 : Lufthansa has announced that they will retire the Germanwings brand on the 25th of October 2015. By November all ex-Germanings planes will operate under the brand Eurowings and use Eurowings' EW code instead of the 4U code currently used by Germanwings. Lufthansa has been managing both low-cost brands and said that they had been planning on retiring the Germanwings brand long before last month's accident. It just doesn't make sense to have two low-cost subsidiaries.

24 March 2015 : Today marks a sad day for Lufthansa and their subsidiary Germanwing as an Airbus A320 carrying around 150 passengers and crew members crashed near a small French Alps town. The Germanwings flight was en route from Barcelona, Spain to Dusseldorf in Germany. It is unsual for a plane to go down in the middle of a flight as up to 95% of all aircraft disasters take place during take-off or landing.

The plane in question was previously owned by Lufthansa and all Germanwing planes are still being serviced by Lufthansa Technic, the same department that services all Lufthansa flights.

Reports of a distress call from the cockpit has been denied. French President Hollande has said that due to the nature of the accident he doesn't believe that any survivors will be found. Foul play has not been ruled out.

20 March 2015 : Lufthansa has had to cancell 42 of their intercontinental flights on Thursday following the extension of Wednesday's strike to Friday. On Wednesday over 750 domestic flights were cancelled, with many more being cancelled for today. Lufthansa pilots union, Cockpit, is still fighting against the raising of the retirement age. Lufthansa originally wanted to extend the retirement age from 55 to 65, but is now only trying to extend it until the age of 60.

This strike brings Lufthansa to a total of 13 strikes in the past year, costing the airline more than 220 million euros. Things aren't looking good for the airline as they are already facing tough competition from Middle Eastern carriers.

1 December 2014 : The airline has cancelled 1350 flights because of the strike that their pilots have embarked on. The airline and the pilots union have become wrapped up in a row over retirement benefits. The cancellations which amounts to about 48% of their scheduled services, will affect more than 150,000 passengers worldwide. This is the 9th strike by the pilots since April of this year. The pilots union is fighting against the airline’s plan of phasing out its early retirement scheme. The scheme allows pilots to retire at the age of 55 while receive up to 60% of their pay up until the age of 65.

30 September 2014 : All long-haul Lufthansa flights departing from Frankfurt between 08h00 and 23h00 today (30 September 2014) will be a disrupted or cancelled because of the strike that the pilots from the Vereinigung Cockpit have embarked on. None of the flights to and from Munich or any short-haul flights to and from Frankfurt will be effected by the strike. All passengers effected by the strike can rebook their tickets free of charge for travel on or before the 31st of December 2014.

28 March 2014 : It's not just South Africa where business & travel is disrupted because of strike action. Because they think they've not been paid enough, airports workers have been striking in Deutschland's Cologne Airport, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hannover, Munich & Stuttgart International Airports.

29 Sep 2014 : Lufthansa pilots' are planning a one-day strike tomorrow, the 30th of September 2014. The strike will not affect passengers flying to or from Munich and short-haul flights from Frankfurt. All passengers whose tickets gets cancelled will be accommodated on other airlines. This just as the Air France strike is coming to an end.

10 Sep 2014 : Pilots from german carrier Lufthansa are planning to go on strike today. The strike will disrupt flights to and from the airline's Munich hub as well as other airports in Germany. The German carrier has warned that its services, especially those to and from Munich, will be heavily affected by the strike, which will run from 10h00 to 18h00 today. They did however state that all of their flights from Frankfurt will operate as normal.

26 Dec 2013 : Let's hope the unions in South Africa don't catch onto this new method of protest. All Lufthansa's staff at Paris's Charles de Gaulle Airport called in sick, in protest at staff shortages and a potential retrenchment program. So there was nobody to check in passengers. Management persuaded workers to get back to the office, and flights resumed later in the day.

31 Mar 2014 : Lufthansa ends its codeshare arrangement with Turkish Airlines which it launched on the 23rd March 2013, meaning that the marriage lasted less than a year. Lufthansa says that the codeshare is being "used less and less frequently by passengers", and "is no longer profitable for us economically" (this was announced on 26 November 2013).

26 Nov 2013 : Passengers in the flexible & mid-price booking classes are able to pre-select a seat for flights on European routes, for free. Passengers who booked the cheapest booking class must pay 10 Euros to select a seat, or select a seat from the point of checking-in (ie 23 hours before the scheduled time of departure). There is also an option to pay 20 Euros to get a seat with more legroom (most of these are the seats at the emergency exits) on European routes, or 60 Euros on an international flight. Initially, you have to use a travel agent to make thse bookings, the Lufthansa Service Center or a Lufthansa Ticket Counter - from Spring 2014 (presumably they are referring to the northern hemisphere spring) these seat selections can be booked at Lufthansa.com

20 Sep 2013. As part of its drive to lower fuel costs, Lufthansa has placed a record order of 34 Boeing 777-9Xs & 25 Airbus A350-900s, to replace their B747-400s & A340-300s (they on average use 2.9l/100km compared to the current 3.6l/100km. The new planes will have wider cabins and are quieter. It also has options to buy 30 more jets from Airbus.

May 2013. Lufthansa introduces a facility where you can select your flight & reserve it for 48 hours (just choose the pay later option). If you decide not to take up the flight, you will be charged a reservation fee.

26 Sep 2013. Lufthansa switches from using an Airbus A380 to a B747-400 on the Johannesburg - Frankfurt route, and starts using the A380 on the Frankfurt-Shanghai route.

22 Apr 2013. Almost all flights within Europe have been cancelled due to strike action.

22 Apr 2013. “Lufthansa has a solid partnership with SAA but its codeshare with Emirates takes away passengers from SAA and happens outside Star Alliance.” "We are pleased that our passenger traffic throughout Europe with Lufthansa as our partner in the Frankfurt and Munich hubs has grown by 35% in the last year alone. Our commitment to this mutually beneficial partnership is certainly unquestionable", said Tlali Tlali, pointing out that the route to Dubai is not directly served by Lufthansa from South Africa.

1 Jan 2013. Lufthansa partners with Avis, setting up a deal whereby you could earn 3 frequent flyer miles with Lufthansa, for every Euro spent with Avis.

Apr 2012. Lufthansa has taken delivery of the first Boeing 747-8.

29 Jun 2011. Lufthansa names one its A380s "Johannesburg". Lufthansa board members, Kay Kratky said "We are investing heavily in South Africa and the African continent and predict that, until 2025, we will continue to see at least 6% growth in these markets."

The EU Commission in Brussels gives the go-ahead for Lufthansa taking over bmi.

Lufthansa Flight Route News

18 Dec 2015. Lufthansa are adding flights from their base in Frankfurt to the popular holiday destination, Cancun, in Mexico. The seasonal service will run from the 8th of December 2015 until the 9th of April 2016. They will operate the route twice per week, on Tuesdays and Saturdays. It will take an Airbus A340-300 12 hours and 30 minutes to complete the flights. Most importantly perhaps, the aircraft allows for constanct connectivity with a FlyNet broadband connection.

9 Nov 2013. It's announced that Lufthansa will operate a seasonal flight from Frankfurt to Montreal, from the 16th May to the 12th October 2014. Flights are on Sundays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. This will create 1-stop flight options from Johannesburg to Montreal.

Power Outlets

On long haul flights Lufthansa have equipped their business and first class seats with power outlets.

Awards

2013-07-22Technology Award : Lufthansa has won the Airline Strategy Award for Technology, including its fuel-saving technologies - Lufthansa will be piloting (in every way!) the use of Taxibot to take its B737s from their parking spots at airports to runways, to avoid the use of main engines until takeoff.

2013-07-20Best First Class Lounges : Readers of Frequent Business Traveler have named the first class lounge of Lufthansa in Frankfurt as being the best in the world, in their GlobeRunner awards. "These awards are further confirmation of the investments we have made in the passenger experience and in our employees’ training. With our exclusive First Class Terminal in Frankfurt, we offer a tailored premium service on the ground – we are delighted that our guests appreciate this. We are investing around one million euros a day in the refitting of our new Business Class alone. We have made significant improvements to our in-flight meals and have opened a large number of new lounges on the ground. We are currently in the process of expanding our entertainment service, and innovative products such as FlyNet - which we are the only airline worldwide to offer on long-haul flights - round off our range of services. We have a clearly defined goal: to become the first Western Five Star Airline by 2015. We still need our fifth star in Business Class to get there, and that is what is driving us forward," said Lufthansa VP Reinhold Huber.

Frequent Flyer Program

Lufthansa frequent flyer program is called "Miles & More". In July 2013 their program was named the best in the world by Frequent Business Traveler magazine.

FlyNet

Lufthansa's FlyNet system allows you to surf the web on its planes and send emails. Almost all of the airline's B747-8s and A380s have been fitted with the system.

Classes

Further information

Lufthansa flight specials

10 May 2013: Lufthansa are really pushing the business class specials - here's another one which follows last week's business class offer: "Business Class Super Sale". OR Tambo-Athens from R21,100*, OR Tambo-Lisbon from R20,750*, OR Tambo-London from R23,450* & OR Tambo-Stockholm from R20,800. These specials are a lot better than last weeks! Book by the 24th May 2013. Travel period is the 10th June 2013 to the 22nd August 2013.

*Very limited availability on selected flights only. Unless it's the morning of the special, it's likely that the airfares of the Lufthansa flight special has changed. Terms & conditions apply.